Posts Tagged ‘film cells’

This just in. There is a rumor on the net that Lex Luthor won’t be be the villain in the upcoming sequel to “Superman Returns“.

Latino Review says that Warner Bros are hearing ideas from writers for a next Supes film, with the studio eager for a new baddie from Superman’s rogues gallery of enemies to be the villain of the piece – thus ruling out Lex. The site report that the studio hasn’t heard a pitch they like yet, but that this is the way they see the franchise developing.

If true, this could open the door for baddies such as Brainiac, Doomsday, Mr. Mxyzptlk and Darkseid to be the main antagonist, although Luthor could obviously be involved in a smaller role.

Recent chatter on the future of the Superman franchise has failed to turn up any definite news. Warner Bros. bigwig Alan Horn said last month that he expects the project to get off the ground “in the next couple of years”, but we still don’t know if Superman Returns director Bryan Singer or star Brandon Routh will be involved, or to what extent the studio plan to re-boot the series.

For those “Harry Potter” fans, who can’t wait for the movie to arrive in theaters next year – here is an idepth preview of what to expect. Beware spoiler warning.

The Harry Potter movies have become a perennial summer and holiday movie mainstay since the 2001 release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. With each film, we’ve watched the actors, their characters, and the storytelling mature. And even though J.K. Rowling’s literary series has drawn to a close, there are still three films to go in the big-screen series.

Next year, the beloved boy wizard returns in the much-anticipated sixth installment of the Warner Bros. film franchise, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The yarn, set in Harry’s sixth year at Hogwarts, explores the past of the evil Lord Voldemort and deals with the increasingly complex relationships between Harry and his friends as they prepare for the final battle.

But you don’t have to wait until July 17, 2009 to find out what’s in store for the next movie in the magical series. We’ve gazed into our crystal ball and have assembled this enchanted guide.

Here’s what you can expect in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince…

THE STORY

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Lord Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final confrontation with an evil that he knows is fast approaching.

Together, Harry and Dumbledore work to find the key to unlock Voldemort’s defenses and, to this end, Dumbledore recruits his old friend and colleague — the well-connected and unsuspecting Professor Horace Slughorn — whom he believes holds crucial information.

Meanwhile, the students are under attack from a very different adversary as teenage hormones rage. Harry finds himself more and more drawn to Ginny, but so is Dean Thomas. And Lavender Brown has decided that Ron is the one for her, only she hadn’t counted on Romilda Vane’s chocolates that are spiked with a love potion. And then there’s Hermione, simmering with jealously but determined not to show her feelings.

The folks over at IGN wants your help to topple Titanic from the top spot as the highest grossing film of all time. The views concerning Titanic is IGN’s alone:

It was 1997. Titanic opened just before Christmas. It was one of those movies that debuted at exactly the right time, striking every possible chord with audiences. The subject matter, for whatever reason, was a source of fascination for people at the time. The movie had just the right cast — Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet were on the verge of superstardom. It utilized exciting, headline-grabbing filmmaking techniques to tell its period story. And we may cringe just thinking about Celine Dion with that giant rock around her elongated neck, but the film was set to music that was absolutely perfect for the times.

And so it was. Grown men cried, virgins were deflowered, and Titanic became the #1 movie of all time. The world was changed. It was that big of a deal.

But a funny thing happened… Time passed, and cinematic tastes evolved. Now, there are plenty of classic Hollywood films that have weathered these changes. But Titanic isn’t one of them. Ironically, the things that made it so very appropriate for the late-1990s, are the things that make it seem so incredibly dated now. Today, Titanic plays like a sickeningly schmaltzy cheese-fest of epic proportions. And that’s why it must be defeated as the top-grossing domestic movie ever. It simply cannot stand! But who will take back the box office crown?

Enter The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece of a sequel to Batman Begins. Now, who knows if we’ll look back on this film the same way in a decade, but we’re pretty sure it’ll still remain one of the best movies we’ve ever seen. That’s why we’re taking it upon ourselves here at IGN to launch a grassroots effort aimed at making The Dark Knight the highest-grossing flick ever. And we need your help, Bat-fans!

TDK, after nine weeks of release, has the second-highest domestic gross of all time — over $517 million. Titanic is still floating atop the list with $600.8 million. For you math geniuses out there, that’s an $83 million deficit. And with the Bat-sequel only pulling in around $4 million this weekend, we’ve all got some work to do. So, spread the word! Let’s get out in force to see The Dark Knight for the umpteenth time, and deliver a shattering Batarang blow right to Jack Dawson’s stunningly gorgeous jaw.

Can we do it? Yes, we can. The Dark Knight has been in theaters for 9 weeks. Titanic enjoyed a whopping 41-week run. That long of a run may not be in the cards for The Dark Knight as the DVD and Blu-ray release are expected in December, but an IMAX rerelease has already been announced for January, so that’s sure to help the cause. For now, the flick is still playing in 2,191 theaters. So, let’s get out there and fill some seats, people!

We hope you’ll join us and do your part to make the world a better place. We’ll be back next week with an update on TDK’s gross and our campaign’s progress. Until then, “¡Sí, se puede!”

“I’ve had this plan for like 10 years for a big three-picture Superman thing, like a Lord of the Rings epic, starting over from scratch again with a seven-hour Superman story. One to be released each year.” [Mark] Millar said.

Millar says there’s nothing firm yet, but he hopes to get word over the next few weeks. If everything goes perfectly, they’ll be shooting next summer.

Starting September 4th, you can watch classic Hollywood movies in the movie theater at The Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audiovisual Conservation. The Maltese Falcon will kick-off the series on September 4 and 5 at 7:30 p.m.:

Classic Hollywood returns to Culpeper next Thursday with the “premiere” of one of many timeless films to be shown year-round in the movie theater at The Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audiovisual Conservation.

All movies are free and open to the public, or as Humphrey Bogart once said, “It’s, “The, uh, stuff that dreams are made of.”

Bogart as Detective Sam Spade in “The Maltese Falcon” kicks off the highly anticipated series on Mount Pony with back-to-back showings of the 1941 Warner Bros. classic Sept. 4 and 5 at 7:30 p.m.

From then on, classics like “The Grapes of Wrath” and “Gone With the Wind” will play three times a week: Tuesdays at 7p.m., Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday matinees at 2 p.m.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Greg Lukow, chief of the library’s Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, of Bogart’s role in the classic detective drama. “Look for the scene where he laughs and claps his hands together with this maniacal glee at a comment his secretary makes.”

Moviegoers will also want to have a look at their lush surroundings.

The 208-seat theater is Art Deco all the way down to the flowered carpet — the same as in the circa-1925 Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, Calif. — up to the chandeliers, exact replicas of the fixtures in San Pedro’s Warner Grand Theatre, circa 1930s.

David Woodley Packard, a longtime supporter of audiovisual and theater conservation, played a major role in the look of the Culpeper theater even down to these smallest details. On a much larger scale, his Packard Humanities Institute donated $155 million toward construction of the Library of Congress facility in Culpeper.

“Besides preservation, (Packard) also has an interest in making sure these precious artifacts are available and accessible to the public in the best possible quality prints and best quality venues,” said Lukow, mentioning that Packard restored the Stanford and has been showing movies there since 1989.

When it comes to venue quality, that’s covered in Culpeper.

As for the prints, they all will come from the Library’s collection — new masters fashioned from original film reels.

Movies showing through the Nov. 22 schedule were selected from the National Film Registry, films recognized for their culture, history or aesthetic.

Mike Mashon, head of the Moving Images Section, said they decided to open the film series with NRF selections primarily because it highlights preservation, the main reason why the Culpeper facility exists.

The Library also tapped the Registry because it contains well-known titles aimed at a broad audience.

But how many people can say they’ve seen classics like 1933’s “King Kong” starring Fay Wray on the big screen? Now they can.

“There is nothing that compares to the experience of seeing them anew in the way they’re supposed to be enjoyed: in the dark, on a big screen with an audience,” Mashon said of the screen, which measures about 28-feet-wide by 20-feet-tall.

“So in that sense, we’re not only preserving films, but the theatrical experience as well.”

The theater on Mount Pony is “the perfect place to see classic American Hollywood,” added Rob Stone, curator with the Moving Images Section inside the theater last week.

“When you walk into this theater, that’s what I think. I don’t think of a sterile screening room. It is a miniature movie palace,” said Stone, who moved to Culpeper three weeks ago from California, where he was associate curator at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

Practically speaking, the theater offers stadium seating so everyone gets a clear view of the screen, plenty of legroom and spaces for three wheelchairs.

An interesting contrast to its 1920 décor, however, is the state-of-the-art projection and sound equipment.

“It’s a very good system,” said Steve Guttag with Cardinal Sound & Motion Picture Systems of Maryland inside the projection room Friday. “It’s one of the highest functioning I’ve seen,” he added above the mechanical roar.

Guttag, who’s traveled the nation installing sound and picture systems, has been involved with the Mount Pony theater project for several years.

He said the movies shown in Culpeper would be “at least 10 times fresher than what you would see in a typical cinema.”

“It’s really geared toward older films,” Guttag said as he worked on finishing touches. “You look at that screen out there it’s very square in shape compared to a modern theater so it’s got a really big advantage.”

The whole set-up is versatile as well, capable of playing any and all film formats, including the earliest type, nitrate.

In fact, the theater on Mount Pony is one of only five theaters in the entire country capable of showing classic prints on nitrate, as they would have been screened before 1950.

Twelve speakers embedded in each wall and five behind the screen will outdo in clarity and sound any home-based theater system and then some.

Projectionist David March, who moved to Culpeper three years ago from LA for the job on Mount Pony, admitted to being a bit nervous in anticipation of the big premier.

“There’s a lot of expectation,” he said, “but actually I’m quite thrilled to be a projectionist for this theater. For somebody who loves films, this is a dream: handling it, showing films they way they used to be shown.”

Old is new again in Culpeper.

“The quality of this system is going to allow the light, silvery black-and-whites and lusciousness of Technicolor color to come through in ways that people have generally forgotten,” Lukow added.

Although, some of Culpeper’s silver-haired generation may remember watching the classics downtown in the State Theatre, now under renovation, opened 1938 on Main Street.

Its first movie that year was “Sally, Irene and Mary” starring Jimmy Durante and Alice Faye.

“Bringing Up Baby” with Katharine Hepburn also debuted in 1938. It shows Sept. 23 on Mount Pony.

Allison Brophy Champion can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 101 or abrophy@starexponent.com

All you need to know about getting tickets:The Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audiovisual Conservation at Mount Pony announces the premiere showing of its year-round free film series Sept. 4 and 5 with “The Maltese Falcon” at 7:30 p.m.

From then on, films will show three times a week: Tuesdays at 7 p.m., Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday matinees at 2.

Reservations for each show in the 208-seat theater, located on the facility’s first level, will be accepted one week in advance using an automated phone system.

To reserve a seat, call 540-827-1079 and then, when asked, enter extension 79994.

A phone message will instruct you to leave the following information: date(s) of the show(s) for which you would like reservations, film title, your name (speak clearly and repeat or spell your last name) and the number of seats desired — four seats per call, please.

The theater lobby will open 45 minutes before show time; stop by the kiosk to get your movie passes, using the same name you left on the phone message. The theater will open half-hour prior to each show.

All outstanding reservations will be canceled 10 minutes before the show is scheduled to start; you may not “save” seats for those arriving late.

For those who do not have a reservation, stop by the kiosk and ask for a numbered “stand-by” card. Ten minutes before show time, any available seats will be given to patrons holding these numbers.

Smoking is not permitted on the NAVCC Packard Campus. Food and drink are not allowed in the theater. Theatergoers of all ages are welcome, but children 12 and younger must be accompanied by an adult.

A possilbe remake of Blade might be in the works and Wesley Snipes may not reprise his role as the coolest vampire ever (with the exception of that guy in “John Carpenter’s Vampires”).

Could there be a new, reworked version of Marvel’s Blade headed to the big screen? Initially, the thought of a Blade franchise reboot sounds kind of crazy, but when you think about it, the first film in the series is already almost 10 years old. And with the later films in the franchise becoming increasingly cheesy, maybe it’s not a bad idea.

The Bloody-Digusting.com website reports that just such a move is being plotted right now in Hollywood. A source for the website contends that the “comic property” (we assume this means Marvel and/or the creative team currently working on the comic) is pushing for the redo rather than New Line, who may or may not be involved.

Marvel is currently attempting to relaunch the Hulk franchise in a similar fashion, which could have them feeling their oats and looking for other stale properties to freshen up. The Blade do-over chatter could also be fueled by the hot-as-fire vampire movie trend that just won’t let up (see Underworld 3).

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is an excellent companion to the book. Read on:

The worm has finally turned with the Harry Potter franchise. Not only are the characters and the challenges they face moving beyond the fumbling, comic and awkwardly childlike into the realm of the truly adult, but the actors who have inhabited these characters for almost eight years now are growing up as well. Candies that turned tongues sour have been replaced with spells that kill or maim, and a darkness that we all knew was festering around the world of wizardry and magic is coming out of the shadows.

In a sense, the Potter movies have been growing with and mirroring the millions of mostly young readers out there who have fallen in love with these characters from day one. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is very aware of its function as the beginning of the end for the franchise and, as such, is the darkest flick yet — full of sinister characters, creatures and very adult machinations.